Getting Genki

[naitorii]

Hello,
I finally filled up my piggy bank and decided to spend it on something other than my game.
I had mentioned, months ago, Genki was expensive.
I saved up ~$50, but I like to save as much money as possible to I'd like to ask, I know amazon is probably the best option, but is there anywhere I'm better off buying it?
Also, is it necessary to get an accompanying workbook?

[LittleGaijin]

Hey naitorii!

I dunno if you've checked already, but I'm pretty big on ebay; things are cheap and shipping is always nice and fast. I did a quick search for Genki Textbooks and came up with some as low as $20 USD. Have a look for yourself!

[naitorii]

Oh, thank you! I hadn't even considered ebay for books.

[AlanP]

If you get Genki they have apps that review each chapter of the books.

See here

[naitorii]

AlanP: I'm an android user.

Also, asking again, is it necessary to get the workbook?

[Jade]

I haven't used Genki, but I imagine that the workbook would make you use the points they teach you in the textbook. I think without the workbook it'd be a little difficult to make yourself remember everything without testing yourself a little on it by using the questions it has. The workbook would ask you to use each grammar point, etc, and it would ask in different ways to make you think about it as you answer the question.

This is all based off the textbooks I used in high school and uni though, as I said I've never used Genki so they may be different. My textbook workbooks also drilled in kanji stroke order and such as well.

[LittleGaijin]

Like Jade, I haven't used Genki either, but all my friends are always raving about them. They really do seem to be helping, and they seem really fun too! I hear that a lot of universities require these books in their Japanese courses, but unfortunately mine were all print-outs of a custom textbook created by my Japanese professor. 

I do however have a workbook that I use once in a while to refresh my Japanese after not using it in a while. Hopefully jamesl33 won't mind that I post this here, but... when he first joined Gaiwa, he sent me a private message and asked me for some textbook recommendations for getting started, and I replied with this:

Sure I have some recommendations! Books that I recommend the most for beginners are "Yookoso! An Invitation to Contemporary Japanese" (this giant textbook got me through it all), and "Japanese: in 10 minutes a day" (the workbook with audio CD). The textbook will get you through all the grammar basics and will introduce you to very important vocabulary, and the workbook is just a fun way to strengthen your memory of all that vocab. I used both these books, and although I stand by Yookoso 101%, if you can find "Genki" workbooks—that series is much better than "10 minutes a day". My biggest tip is to buy books without romaji/ローマ字 in them, and force yourself to read kana (and later, kanji) as much as possible!

[Jade]

When I was a beginner I started with Mirai, and I had that all through years 7, and 9-12 for high school, when I got to uni I got Yookoso! instead. So I recommend both of those too~~ I really liked Mirai more than Yookoso!, but that may have been because by the time I got around to uni I'd already learnt 90% of the JAPN200 level class content in my last two years of high school with Mirai. The only things I hadn't learnt from high school had been transitive/intransitive verbs and honorific and humble language so it had been a hell of a boring year for me my first year of uni Japanese lol

[chocopie]

I used Genki. The textbook itself contains reading & writing practice and some speaking exercises so you could probably get away with not getting the workbook? I don't think I ever had the workbook to be honest.